SFU's 50th Anniversary – In the Media

Here's a snapshot of SFU's 50th Anniversary in the news!

Circa 1948, a groundbreaking and immersive interactive storyworld co-created by the National Film Board of Canada's (NFB) award-winning Digital Studio in Vancouver and internationally acclaimed artist Stan Douglas, is open for viewing at SFU's Surrey campus until Nov. 13.

A Canadian poet who lost family in the Air India disaster is collaborating with Irish artists on a new musical to mark the 30th anniversary of the terrorist bombing. Award-winning Vancouver-based Renée Sarojini Saklikar was aged 23 when she lost her aunt Zebunnisa and uncle Umar in the bombing of Flight 182.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed a Vancouver aboriginal woman as justice minister, it reflected the possibility of profound changes in the federal government's relationship with indigenous people. Vancouver Granville MP Jody Wilson-Raybould's elevation occurred at a swearing-in ceremony that also featured two young Inuit throat singers.

On Wednesday, November 4 Vancouver's downtown streets will come alive with a host of cool, creative, and engaging street performances as groups of community-minded Vancouverites assemble for a unique collaboration of urban "activations."

On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 disappeared off air traffic control radar near the coast of Ireland with 329 passengers and crew bound for Delhi. As initial Irish search and rescue efforts turned to the grim task of recovery, news of the Air India disaster was just reaching a small family on Dublin Street in New Westminster, B.C.

The bombing of Air India Flight 182 produced a tragic and indelible Irish-Canadian link. The plane, en route from Canada to Delhi, exploded into the sea off the southwest coast of Ireland in June, 1985. Devastated families travelled to Cork, where they were supported by locals.

Thirty years ago, famed Canadian artist Bill Reid created what he considered his greatest work. From a single cedar log, Reid carved a 50-foot war canoe, the Loo Taas or Wave Eater. It was first of its kind in the northwest coast in about a century, sparking a renaissance of the canoe culture of indigenous people that continues to this day.

This week-long series of events brings together Metro Van's 'builders,' and that includes you. Fifty years ago when Simon Fraser University's first chancellor, Gordon M. Shrum, was tasked with deciding where to place the Lower Mainland's brand new university, the dramatic vistas of Burnaby Mountain captured his imagination and swept the institution, literally, up into the clouds.

He also details what it was like taking on the iconic role of Steve Wozniak, and what the response has been like. This annual community appreciation event lets Scouts Canada say thank you. We find out where and how you can donate. Show more

Simon Fraser University has launched a new innovation strategy called "SFU Innovates," which will establish a network of initiatives and partnerships to position the school as an international leader in the development of talent, technology, and transformation.

Following a successful trial of their injury-preventing tech during the 2014 football season at Simon Fraser University, the makers of BrainShield are ready to take the latest version of their innovation to market.

A 3D printer and a wearable vest that can reduce anxiety - those are just two ideas that students have developed and brought to market through Simon Fraser University's Venture Connection program. The university's multi-pronged innovation programs are now expanding with the opening of a new 24,000 square foot facility at the Harbour Centre in Downtown Vancouver on Thursday.

When a young woman leaves a nightclub at 4 a.m. and encounters four underworld characters named Sonne, Boxer, Blinker and Fuss, you can bet there will be trouble - and she gets more than her share in the award-winning German film Victoria, one of this year's top Vancouver International Film Festival picks for director of programming Alan Franey.

Shaw - who was born in Melbourne, Australia - explains that this work was originally undertaken as a research project as he and his team explored "a vocabulary of interpretive strategies," he says from Hong Kong. Another highlight of the show is another Shaw/Kenderdine collaboration Place-Hampi, an interactive, 360-degree display that immerses viewers in a different World Heritage site, this one in Hampi, India.

University students in Paris, Toulouse, and Bologna in the late 1200s pored over anthologies of Civil Law such as the one Simon Fraser University in Canada has just acquired, which contains among other things the New Laws of the Roman emperor Justinian.

Caleb Sung (at the mic) and Brett Janzen (on drums) won Simon Fraser University's 50th-anninversary Legacy Song Contest with a number called 'Engage the World.' - image credit: Submitted by SFU SURREY - Local musicians Caleb Sung and Brett Janzen peaked at the right time with their song about Simon Fraser University.

Winners of SFU's Legacy Song contest are Caleb Sung (singing) and Brett Janzen (drums) for their song, Engage the World. - image credit: SFU photo Sometimes turning 50 has its perks. Like getting your very own song. It may have taken a half-century of survival, but SFU's longevity is finally something to sing about.

While some say Simon Fraser University is strictly a commuter school without too much campus culture, there are several annual events that make a trip up the mountain on evenings and weekends worth the trouble.

On Wednesday, Simon Fraser University celebrated its 50th anniversary. Among those wishing the university well was British Columbia's Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson, who reflected on how the school was first dubbed "the instant university" when its doors opened only 18 months after construction began in 1963.

On September 9, 1965 Simon Fraser University opened up on Burnaby Mountain with 2,685 students enrolled. Just 50 years later, the university's enrollment has skyrocketed, growing to over 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students registered for courses for this fall semester at three campuses in Surrey, Burnaby and Vancouver.